How Marketing Impacts Sales Performance

You know the question is coming, because it comes every year. You know who is going to ask it, because that person asks it every year. It's just a matter of when—perhaps at the end of a difficult quarter or during a mid-year review meeting. As budgets are being discussed, it comes: "What are we getting from our marketing dollars?"

It's a fair question, and given the size of some marketing budgets, marketers should be asking the same question. To answer, you must first recognize what the salesperson is really asking, which is "What is the value of marketing?"